happy birthday lucy mei!

Our sweet Lucy Mei turns 2 today! Happy 2nd Birthday baby girl!

If you know our family at all, you know we celebrate every birthday with a chocolate Long John doughnut for breakfast (a very rare treat in our house!) and a "Happy Birthday" song....it's a very special (and highly anticipated!) way to start each of these very special days.

It's also a tradition the kids LOVE!!!! So, naturally, we celebrated Lucy Mei's 2nd Birthday the same way!

Happy Birthday sweet, beautiful girl. We can't wait to celebrate Birthday #3 with you!!! 

P.S. Jack asked if we were going to send Lucy's doughnut to China....or maybe he could just eat it? Love that kid. 

photo surprise!

Today we received a surprise photo of Lucy Mei!!!

The photo was sent to us by the China Charity Project Director at our agency who met Lucy Mei on one of her visits to China.

Her email stated:

Dear Greg & Kim,

I found your little angel's photo in my folder and I took it last year. Enjoy it :) :) :)

Loving her sweet, beautiful, precious face and those tiger pajama pants! :) Can't help but notice the snack in her hand and the one in her crib! Someone is watching out for our girl!

What a gift to have this photo. So grateful to the Director for sending it to us. We will treasure it always!!

 

care package #2 (birthday!)

Lucy Mei turns 2 on May 24th!

Birthdays are a BIG deal 'round our house and every little girl needs a party! So, I contacted our agency for advice and approval on sending Lucy Mei a birthday cake using a care package service in China. They agreed (as long as we didn't request an update....all correspondence must go through the agency).

The service is called Red Thread China and the lady's name is Ann. We love Ann! We sent Ben's care package using her service and even hired her as our personal shopping assistant while in Guangzhou. We couldn't keep up with her! She's a tough little negotiator too!

Ann emailed our care package photos today and said the package will be delivered on Lucy Mei's birthday!!! :)

The package will include the following:

• a translated letter we wrote to Lucy Mei
• a disposable camera (hopefully returned to us with photos when we meet Lucy Mei!)
• candies for the nannies
• a stuffed pink puppy (soooo cute!)
• a custom pillow collage with our family photo, including Lucy Mei
• a 12-14" fresh cake 

But, most importantly, Ann said the orphanage agreed to send photos from her birthday party!!! Oh my!! YAY!!!!!

another update + 2 more photos!

Be still my heart!! This morning at 11:55 a.m. I received another email from our agency with an update on our beautiful Lucy Mei!

2 more photos, updated measurements and an updated social report!!! Wowza!

First the photos (what we all want to see!)......

LOVE the outfit!!! Seriously, could she be any cuter?!!!

Looking tall and independent! :)

Her update dated 5/11/12:

* She can stand up and does not need help.

* She can go up and down stairs with two feet by turns.

* she can feed herself finger foods.

* She can say "mama", "baba" and imitate some simple words.

* She understands "no".

* She can respond to her name.

* She can follow simple instructions and respond to people asking her for an object.

* She can point to her eyes, ears, nose, mouth and hands. :)

* She can move to music. :)

In addition, another update from 4/28/12:

Normally she does not cry or fuss. When she sees a stranger, she is not afraid. She can play with toys on her own. She wrangles over toys with other children. She sleeps well. She can distinguish familiar people from strangers.

She eats once every 3 hours, and her supplemental foods include: little breads, rice porridge and milk.

Her weight was 26 pounds, height was 35.5" tall. On US growth charts, she's in the 45th percentile for weight and 91st percentile for height!  

Oh baby girl, how we long to wrangle with you!!!

new photos!

At 10:20 a.m. this morning I received a very surprising email from our agency with 2 new photos of our precious baby girl!!!

The only photos we had received, prior to these, were taken late last summer / early fall. She has changed and grown so much!! Look at her hair!!! She's so beautiful and appears very healthy. 

What an amazing gift to have these photos! It's a happy, happy day!!!